Violence on the Meek

By: Stuart Bray

Narrated by: Christopher Anthony

Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Paul has hated the world and everyone in it, since he was eight years old. As an adult, he has decided to write his autobiography—his final words directed at the very existence that he despises. Paul will take you on a path of murder, death, incest, and violence, the likes of which you could never imagine.

©2023 Stuart Bray (P)2023 Fright Night Audio

Fantastically violent

If I had any triggers, this definitely would’ve hit one of them
As a huge fan of splatterpunk in the disturbing, I would have to put this up there with one of the most extreme as it seems to touch on just about everything
This might not be for everybody, but if it is, you’re gonna love it 5stars

This story is edgy even for extreme horror …

I received a free copy of this audiobook. I am choosing to do a review because I really liked the story.
I don’t like discouraging anyone from reading a good book but if you have any triggers at all there is nothing to see here. Stay away, really.
This may be the best splatterpunk/extreme horror I have read this year. There is a lot of very disturbing content, unnatural sex acts and heaps of gore but underneath it all is an excellent, well thought out storyline and a bit of a surprise ending. I enjoyed this one a ton and I’m looking forward to reading the second book in a series of three. The narrators performance was outstanding as well.
I would recommend this book to only veteran extreme horror fans only.

An extreme(ly bad) novella

I'm a fan of extreme horror novels/novellas, so this isn't about the content of the story.

"Violence on the Meek" is basically 3 hours of poorly written snuff that's only guaranteed to shock people who haven't read extreme horror, while simultaneously boring those of us who have.

Here is how every single scene unfolds, written in the style of this book: "I look at <insert victim here> and I feel disgust because they are a maggot. Then, I <insert graphic violence here>."

The victims in the story aren't even 2 dimensional. Every character that crosses paths with the narrator is functionally identical, has identical reactions, and behaves so mind-numbingly stupid (because if any of these characters had a rational reaction, there wouldn't be a book), that by the 20% mark you effectively know the outcome of every single scene. I could possibly look past this if the scenes themselves were entertaining to read, but it's so poorly written.

Half the sentences are written in the passive voice, and every emotion the narrator feels is "told" to us rather than shown. The narrator "hates" humanity, but nothing about the prose gives us any idea why. A picture is never painted to "show" us his disdain in real time. There's just a loop of the main character encountering someone, him telling us how he feels, then he does something terrible, then he says life is pointless, and we move aimlessly to the next chapter.

Around the halfway mark, the loop gets shaken up a little bit when some new antagonists enter the picture and for a moment I thought "okay, perhaps this is what will drive the plot to its conclusion." Nope. I was wrong. These new characters fall into the same predictable loop and before long they're just another inconsequential bump in the narrative.

Basically, this story is one giant non-sequitur. Each scene of violence and depravity seemingly happens in a vacuum, with only the most superficial of consequences. The best example of this is the main character killing some random characters, hiding out for several years, and then stumbling across relatives of his victims who are out for revenge... But who admitted to knowing about the killings yet did absolutely nothing for literal years because... No reason. They just... didn't do anything until the main character stumbled across them accidentally.

Or, the main character shoots someone in the middle of a neighborhood and he manages to just... hide right next door for hours without anyone investigating. Why does no one investigate? Why do the cops not show up and lock down the crime scene? Well, because that would interfere with what the main character does hours later, which is return to the crime scene to surprise the victim's family with even more depraved violence.

The author doesn't understand, or doesn't care, that without compelling characters and well written prose, even the most repulsive descriptions of violence fall flat. Without any build up to the violence, there's no payoff. There's no revulsion. It's just gross words on a page that made me shrug.